Typically, a box chart displays X and Y values that are partitioned into a small number of boxes (e.g., 3×3, 4×4, etc.). Such a configuration allows analysts to more easily categorize and focus on subsets within the data being represented by the chart. When both dimensions (i.e., the x-axis and the y-axis) are continuous, the chart looks similar (and functions similarly) to a scatter plot (see FIG. 1A). However, when both dimensions are discrete, (i.e., where both dimensions consist of a limited set of specific values) most of the plotted markers overlap, making the chart difficult to read or understand. Thus, in this situation, a typical scatter plot becomes impractical.
For example, if employee performance vs. employee potential is being plotted, where both scores are either high, medium, or low, there are only 9 possible combinations. If, for example, one hundred employees are being plotted on this 3×3 grid, some of the 9 boxes may hold many markers which all have identical (x,y) values. Accordingly, if markers are simply plotted in the center of each box, the viewer has no way of perceiving whether an individual box holds one, ten, or one hundred markers. However, plotting markers at random locations within each box is misleading because such a plotting suggests that some markers within a box have higher scores (or weighting) than others (see FIG. 1B).
In some prior implementations, this problem is avoided by requiring both dimensions to be continuous. Alternatively, in order to avoid plotting the markers, scrolling text lists for each box may be provided. Furthermore, the markers may be plotted randomly (as in FIG. 1B) or from left to right starting in the upper left corner of each box (see FIGS. 2A & 2B). Nonetheless, all of these workarounds are unsatisfactory; they are either too limiting or produce displays of the data which are misleading and/or difficult to understand. Accordingly, these problem have significantly limited the widespread use of box charts as a general analytical tool. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems in the art.